Empowering the elite
ROB ROSE: Why Cell C gave a R7.5m leg up to an elite school
Of all the schools in the country that could do with a multimillion-rand sponsorship from Cell C, the privileged Hilton College isn’t one of them
For a company in the deepest of junk status, lavishing a multimillion-rand sponsorship on SA’s most elite school doesn’t seem to be the most obvious way of spending sparse resources. Yet Cell C claims it’s doing the right thing by giving R7.5m over three years to SA’s most expensive school, Hilton College, which sits on a sprawling 1,762ha estate in KwaZulu Natal’s midlands. Two weeks ago, headmaster George Harris informed parents of a "substantial partnership" with Cell C that would allow the school to use the money for "whatever purposes it chooses". As a quid pro quo, Cell C gets "discreet branding of first-team kit and certain sports equipment". It suggests some elements in corporate SA are pretty out of touch with the society in which they operate. Unfortunately, Cell C executive marketing head Doug Mattheus didn’t do much to counter this impression when I asked him whether his company wasn’t just helping an elite school that hardly needs a leg up. "We ask ourselves the same qu...
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